Love, Bella
by AmeBuchanan
Summary: Edward upsets Bella and the ladies swoop in to comfort her. - After NM - This is probably trash, but it’s my first time trying something “fluffy,” tell me how I did. - Mama!Rose, Alice, and Esme being there for Bella in her time of need. No clue what this even is, but I tried lol. One-shot.


**_Not entirely sure what this is, but I want to see what needs improvement. Seems cute enough, not quite sure I've captured the essence of cute though. Is cute something you're born with or can you learn cute? After writing this and reading over it, pretty sure it's something you're born with and I don't think I was lol. Leave a review and let me know how I did. _**

**_On to the story:_**

**___**

Edward was being such an asshole. He invited me over after school and I thought we would just be listening to music, like usual, but he wanted to talk. He was still on about my birthday and all of them abandoning me and I really just wanted to put it in the past.

When I told him it was okay and I forgave all of them he kept pushing, telling me what I should feel and how I should think of him and his family. It wasn't really the content of the conversation that bothered me so much, it was that he was still trying to control me after everything his bullshit put me through.

His controlling ways were ruining my life and I was wondering if it was really a good idea to save him back in Italy.

I shook my head to clear that thought from my head. I shouldn't want him dead, even though he forced me to stop talking to my best friend, Jacob, even though he left me a crying mess in the forest and took his family from me and took every item I had that reminded me of them. I was starting to forget why I wasn't suppose to want him dead.

"Are you okay, honey?" Esme seemed to appear out of nowhere, though that was probably a combination of me being lost in my thoughts and her being a silent apex predator. My heart sped and I gasped softly before pressing my hand to my chest as if to keep my heart from beating out of it. "I didn't mean to startle you, Bella." Esme smiled warmly and pulled me into her arms. Her hugs always made me feel better before they left, but she was always hesitant about touching me now that they were back.

"I'm fine, Esme. Just a little irritated." I mumbled into her shoulder as her gentle hands rubbed my back soothingly. My arms were folded between us and my fingers held her shoulders loosely.

"Tell me what happened, dear." She pressed a kiss to my forehead before leading me into the kitchen. Rosalie and Alice were sitting at the isle going through fashion magazines together. Since they came back, Rosalie seemed nicer, still quite aloof, but less hostile. She wasn't really a friend, more of a tentative associate, maybe.

Esme gently pushed me toward a stool next to Rosalie and she turned her attention to me as soon as I sat. I felt nervous when she looked at me for too long. I was use to short glances and dismissive silence. Alice leaned forward a bit to see me passed Rosalie and Esme stood on the other side of the isle to stare at me as well.

"Well?" Rosalie raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"I feel awkward talking about this stuff with you guys. Edward is your family, it's-"

"You're our family too." Esme cut in. Her eyes seemed to sadden as she watched me flinch from her words. I loved the Cullens, I really did, but I was still hurting and I had nightmares about them leaving again. I worried about my potential future with them and it scared me knowing that I felt so uncertain about my position among them.

"Bella, I wish I could tell you how sorry we are for leaving you. We really wish we could make you understand how horrible we feel about hurting you." Alice whispered, her usually twinkling eyes were cloudy with guilt. I already forgave them, but it didn't help me forget and that's why I was almost aggressive in my pursuit to stop everyone from bringing it up. I hoped that if we all pretended it never happened, it would feel like it never did.

"But that's not what we want to talk about." Rosalie interjected. Though she still seemed to avoid me the best she could, at moments like these, she was always very observant of my moods and steered the conversation away from things like this.

"I love Edward." I said as confidently as I could. At this point the whole "are you in love though" argument was warring in my head on a day to day basis and I couldn't really say yes. I loved him for bringing me into this world and I loved him for letting me enjoy so many great moments with his family and occasionally him, but when I thought of the future, he wasn't someone I saw being a permanent fixture; not romantically, at least.

How did I even begin to tell them that? Especially after they revealed themselves to me solely based on my and Edward's "great romance."

"We didn't ask if you loved him. We asked why you were upset." Rosalie pushed, her glacial eyes staring right into my soul. I wrung my hands together, my nerves peaking as her gaze pressed on me. I felt like I was being pushed into a corner, like she was demanding I submit to her will.

"Rose, stop." Esme scolded, but I wasn't sure what she was getting onto the blonde about. Rosalie growled softly, the feeling intensifying for a long enough moment to steal my breath before it disappeared entirely. I panted softly, a bead of sweat rolling slowly down my forehead. I wiped my clammy skin with the back of my long sleeve shirt and tried to straighten myself up after slumping so low in my seat I nearly sank through it.

"Just tell us what happened, honey. We're not going to be upset or try to force you into anything." Esme's warm smile was back in place and all of the sunshine and happiness it brought came flowing into me the same way it always did. Everyone seemed to ignore what happened with Rosalie, so I assumed it was right for me to dismiss it too.

"I- it just feels like he's always trying to take my choices away. Like with forcing me to choose between him and Jacob. Jacob is my best friend, I shouldn't have to push him away just because Edward thinks it's a good idea. My thoughts on it should matter just as much if not more than his because this is my friend and my life, you know." I sighed softly. Getting all of that off my chest felt liberating. After everything Jake did for me when the Cullens left, I felt ungrateful for pushing him to the side like that. More guilty even, knowing that I let my overbearing boyfriend force me to do it.

I was just as angry at myself as Edward, how could I let myself get to this point of blindly following someone? I knew part of it had to do with always needing to make the decisions when I was living with my mom. Having someone to choose everything that was going to happen with me and around me was fun for a while, but now it was old and I missed my independence.

"I just feel like being with him isn't a good idea anymore, but I don't want to break up with him because he's the only reason I know you guys and about your secret. It would mean dooming myself to humanity and probably mean I'd never see any of you again." My voice shook a little when I finally spoke my fear out loud. I didn't want Edward, but I wanted his family, I wanted the closeness and the support. I wanted the love and affection, things I always felt so deprived of. Here it was right in front of me and I was probably saying things that would tear it all away, but I had to say it. I didn't want to feel miserable like this forever.

"I know you guys will leave me again if I break up with him, but I don't think I'd be happy spending my life by his side." A tear fell from my eye and I tried to wipe it away before they could see, but they were vampires, they saw everything.

"Bella, we will never leave you again." I was surprised to hear Rosalie say that and even more surprised to feel her arms wrapping around me. She rested her chin on my forehead and rubbed my back the same way Esme did earlier. It was soothing, it relieved the ache in my chest and helped me relax against her. Alice joined our hug, her arms taking up the space below Rosalie's and her chin resting on my shoulder. Then Esme squeezed into the last available space behind me. She nuzzled her nose into the crook of my neck and ran her cool fingers through my hair.

The three of them purred in unison, it was soft and rumbled deep in their chests, sending a gentle vibration through my body. I felt boneless, my muscles relaxed in a way I never thought possible before now and my heart slowed to a calmness I'm sure it never reached while I was awake.

"We love you, Bella, you're always going to be apart of this family." Alice's wind chime voice whispered in my ear and her cheek rubbed tenderly against mine.

"I love you guys too." I slurred. My lips felt like jelly and there was very little movement I could force from them in this state.

"Woah mama bears, calm down!" Emmett's voice hit my ears, but my eyes didn't seem to want to open and I was perfectly fine with it. If rainbows, pixie dust, and gumdrops were emotions, I'd be feeling all of them right now. I was pretty sure this couldn't be topped by anything. "Come on, girls, you're smothering her with it. She'll be high on pheromones for days."

"Pheromones?" I mumbled. My head lolled to the side and rested on Rosalie's chest. Esme and Alice cooed softly at me like I was the cutest thing they've ever seen, while Rosalie pressed a kiss to the crown of my head.

"Guys, seriously! She's gotta go home soon, Charlie's gonna think she's drunk!" Emmett shouted dramatically. Whatever he was yelling about couldn't be that important. He was being too loud and disturbing me in my pursuit to melt into a puddle.

"Fine Emmett!" Esme growled, something extremely uncharacteristic of her. I felt like I was slowly floating down from cloud nine. I whimpered softly and tried to keep all of them where they were, but they each pulled back, one of each of their hands holding me steady on my stool.

It took a long moment to recompose myself after whatever that was. My eyes weren't so heavy anymore, but when I opened them, they were still battling with me to stay closed.

"What the hell was that?" I whispered. I looked up at each of the women who, surprisingly, looked a bit sheepish.

Emmett grabbed me from the three women as quickly and as gently as possible and tried his best not to look at their hostile expressions. He propped me up on the porch swing on the back patio and fanned his hand in front of my face.

"Sorry, Bellyboo." He used his index finger and thumb to gently tilt my head back and forth with my chin. "Lady vamps can be a little much when a kid is in distress." His face split into a toothy grin.

"I'm not a kid!" I halfheartedly shouted. I tried to glare at the behemoth, but from the mocking cooing sound he made, I knew I failed miserably.

"They're each 85 and then some, Bellsie, you're definitely a kid to them. Or at least to their instincts." He chuckled and moved to sit next to me.

"What do you mean?" The happy fog covering my brain was finally starting to clear. I still had to focus pretty hard on what Emmett was saying to understand a single word.

"Well you know we can't reproduce sexually. This is kind of it for vampires. The ladies will find a human that activates their maternal instincts and just like a mom they watch after them and spoil them with gifts and food, you know." He shrugged and his goofy grin seemed to grow even bigger.

"Don't say she activated our maternal instincts. It makes us sound like robots." Rosalie stepped onto the back patio, she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. Alice and Esme followed shortly after and sat down on the patio chairs near the steps down to the backyard.

"Edward never told me about that." I furrowed my eyebrows and stared at my hands as they picked at the frayed knee of my jeans.

"He didn't want you to be changed, so he begged Carlisle to tell each of us to reign it in." Alice frowned. "Anytime you were upset, it was really hard to let Edward handle all of it. Male vampires don't have soothing pheromones, they can only provide words of support." Alice sniffled and her eyes filled tears, but she wiped them before they could fall.

"When he was the reason you were upset, we wanted to rip his head from his shoulders. When he wasn't, we wanted to rip his head from his shoulders for not letting us go to you." Esme spoke about beheading Edward so causally, it was a little frightening coming from her. She always seemed to be the most passive of the family.

"But what does any of this have to do with changing me? And how is it possible for all three of you to feel that way about me?" I had many questions to ask, but I was trying my very hardest to keep them from all spilling out rapidly. Two at a time seemed to be the slowest I could go. I loved learning new things about vampires, but under my excitement was irritation. Edward always seemed to keep me in the dark with things that had to do with me. I was getting pissed off all over again, he was such a controlling bastard sometimes.

"When a human wakes up their inner mama bear, they usually try to turn them pretty quickly because they are always worried about something happening to the human." Emmett chuckled and ruffled my hair. I groaned and tried to push his big hand away.

"With you tripping every two steps you take, these three were almost ripping their hair out every time you did anything alone." He roared with laughter and nudged my shoulder playfully. I pouted, crossed my arms, and huffed. Emmett stopped laughing immediately.

The three women turned their eyes to him and growled like he pushed their kid on the ground. Which this was probably the equivalent of that, he was making fun of me, but I wasn't actually upset.

"Guys, no, I'm not really mad at him." I uncrossed my arms and hugged Emmett tightly. "See, not upset, I was just kidding!" I patted the top of his head, which seemed to calm them down.

"Bellsie, you can't do that! Rosie threw a boulder at me the last time you left the house pouting like I stole your favorite toy." He pressed his hand to his chest dramatically and panted like he was trying to calm his rapidly beating heart.

"Which brings us back to your second question." Alice smiled softly and pulled her legs under her on the patio chair. "When female vampires live closely with each other, when one's instincts are triggered, the others follow shortly after." I nodded slowly, but that gave me another question to ask.

"Who was the first?" I assumed Esme, but was shocked right out of my socks when Rosalie gestured to herself. "But I thought you didn't like me." She never seemed to like me, if anything, every moment I was around her seemed to be the worst time of her life.

"As we said, Carlisle told us to reign it in and I knew I couldn't, so I did my best to seem inhospitable." Her eyes softened a bit, but they still held the steal I associated with her. I had a feeling Rosalie was always pretty scary, but the slight change in her icy stare was comforting nonetheless.

"Why would Carlisle do that though?" My irritation for Edward was quickly being spread equally between the brooding boy and the family's patriarch.

"Ed said you were his mate and the mate always wins over the mama bears in the vampire law book. Looks like Eddy has an ass kicking coming." Emmett's booming laugh bounced around them and into the trees, scaring some of the birds into flight.

"He absolutely has one coming, dear. Hopefully he takes his punishment with grace because if I have to hunt him down, he's not going to like how I handle the situation." Esme's soft smile was disarming, but the words that flowed from her mouth so sweetly were something I hoped to never have directed at me.

Alice's eyes glazed over for a moment. When her eyes cleared, she grinned and a figure flashed passed us, but it didn't make it far. When everything slowed down enough for me to see properly, Esme had Edward by the back of his shirt and was hauling him off toward the forest.

"I'll be back in a few minutes." Esme yelled over her shoulder, her kind voice taking on the hard edge it did when Emmett forced them to stop hugging me in the kitchen.

"What's she going to do to him?" As frustrating as Edward could be, I didn't want him hurt.

"No worries, Bella. She's just going to put him in timeout." Alice giggled and hopped up from her seat. She took my hands and pulled me up. She hugged me immediately, her small arms lifted me and twirled me. I was both shocked and amused by it, but I couldn't help the laugh that bubbled from my lips.

"Alice put me down!" I giggled and held tightly to her arms. That feeling was back, but this time it was just the pixie dust. It was the only way I could describe Alice's energy. It was like being able to fly, it was weightless and effortlessly happy.

I was taken gently from her arms and pulled against a taller frame. Rosalie purred softly and rubbed her cheek against mine. She was the rainbows, extraordinary to witness, something untouchable, but still able to bring so much joy.

The next person I was passed to was a bit smaller than Rose, but bigger than Alice. Esme kissed my forehead and ran her fingers through my hair. She was gumdrops, sweet enough to give cavities, but something that was worth every silver cap on my teeth.

We were all watching movies as the sunset and I remembered something.

"How do you put a vampire in timeout?" I looked up at Esme, my head was resting on her lap as she fed me green grapes that she cut in half for some reason. Alice was situated on the floor by Esme's legs, a glass of juice with a bendy straw in her hand just in case I got thirsty. Rosalie was at the end of the couch, my feet propped on her lap, a car magazine in one hand and a bag of candy in the other, opened and waiting for me to ask for another.

"Bury them. Once you get them about 6 feet under, you can pack the dirt down well enough to keep them in there until their time is up." Esme grinned and offered me another grape, but I declined. I looked down at Rosalie, who already had the green apple jolly rancher out its wrapper by the time my hand reached for it.

"Oh, do you put all of them in timeout?" I was about to bite into the jolly rancher, but Alice reached behind herself and grabbed my jaw to stop me.

"You were going to chip a tooth. Those are hard candies, Bella, be careful." Alice gave me a stern look before turning her attention back to the TV.

"Emmett spends a lot of time in timeout, but it's usually Rosalie putting him out there." Esme chuckled and Rosalie's lips gave a short upward quirk before she flipped the page of her magazine.

"Speaking of bad teeth and timeouts, it's time to take a break from candy and feed the human some real food." Alice grinned, jumped up, and disappeared into the kitchen with my candy, grapes, and juice. I whined, but I couldn't help smiling as I was led to the kitchen by Rose and Esme.


End file.
